It has now been five games since the Golden State Warriors lost superstar point guard Stephen Curry to a rare runner’s knee injury. The issue first flared up late last month and has sidelined Curry through the All-Star break and into the team’s return to action on Thursday night against the Boston Celtics.
The timeline just got longer. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Curry will be re-evaluated in 10 days but is expected to miss at least five more games and will not return until early March at the earliest. Even then, he will likely need additional time to regain game shape, assuming the re-evaluation is positive.
The absence is clearly taking a toll, and no one is sugarcoating it. After Thursday’s 126-113 home loss to the Celtics, Warriors veteran big man Al Horford delivered a blunt and sobering assessment of life without Curry.
“I mean, it’s a big difference. We can’t lie to ourselves,” Horford said. “You try to do things and figure things out, but he just does so much that goes unseen. We see the scoring, we see the amazing plays, but then also the way that the offense runs and the things he doesn’t get credit for—whether it’s assists, whether it’s layups, a lot of things that open up for the rest of us. It is a huge gap. It is night and day, completely, how we are with him and without him.”
The numbers back up Horford’s grim outlook. Before Curry’s injury, the Warriors posted a solid offensive rating of 114.8 (14th in the NBA). Without their leading scorer (27.2 points per game) and playmaker (4.8 assists), that figure has plunged to 110.5, now ranking 21st league-wide.
Defensively, the drop has been even more surprising. The Warriors were a top-10 defensive team with Curry on the floor (defensive rating 112.1, 7th in the NBA). Without him, that rating has ballooned to 116.1, also 21st in the league. On Thursday, even with Horford and newcomer Kristaps Porzingis playing together in two-big lineups, Boston dismantled Golden State’s interior.
Horford acknowledged the defensive struggles but insisted the group is capable of improving.
“I think the key with that is, defensively we have to be able to figure it out and be better,” he said. “And I feel like we are capable of playing with two bigs. We have to figure it out. We have some of these games now to do that. And obviously, we hope that Steph is back soon, but in the meantime, we have to figure it out because we have really good bigs.”
For now, the Warriors must navigate the next stretch without their franchise cornerstone. As Horford made clear, the difference is stark—and the margin for error is gone.